Beyond ‘Downton Abbey,’ A British Star Reaches ‘Parade’s End’

ByAlexandra Alter

Even the most determined readers have been thwarted by “Parade’s End,” Ford Madox Ford’s sprawling, 900-plus page modernist masterpiece.

British actress Rebecca Hall, who plays the bewitching socialite Sylvia Tietjens in the BBC/HBO adaptation of the novels, was among the uninitiated until she started preparing for the role.

“I was quite overwhelmed by the books to be honest,” says Ms. Hall, who recently finished shooting her role as scientist Maya Hansen in “Iron Man 3.” “I got through a large chunk of an English degree at Cambridge without anyone ever talking about them.”

The novels tell the story of Christopher Tietjens, a British aristocrat and soldier who serves in France during World War I. Tietjens, who is played by “Sherlock” star Benedict Cumberbatch, prizes loyalty, honor and discretion above all else. He begins to crack when falls in love with a young women’s rights activist, Valentine, and his manipulative wife Sylvia has multiple affairs. The novels are beloved by scholars and writers, including Graham Greene, Anthony Burgess and Julian Barnes, but never attracted a wide readership. They sold just a few thousand copies when they were first published in Britain between 1924 and 1928.

Now, with a new mini-series written by award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard, the forgotten novels are finally reaching a mainstream audience, nearly 90 years later. When the joint BBC and HBO production aired in Britain last August, “Parade’s End” suddenly shot up the British best-seller lists. (The five-part series begins airing on HBO tonight). News of the TV series prompted U.S. paperback publisher Vintage to release a new edition of the novel last year; there are now more than 20,000 copies in circulation. Many critics are comparing the cable adaptation to the hit period series “Downton Abbey.”

“Parade’s End” is a complex story with slippery main characters that seem appealing at one moment and off-putting the next. What made you want to join the production?

My initial reaction was to the screenplays. I thought they were incredible pieces of literature themselves. I immediately thought, I have to go read the books. I was struck by not only what a striking adaptation Tom had made of it, but how the series is some sort of strange alchemy that goes on between Tom Stoppard and Ford Madox Ford.

What appealed to you about Ford’s version when you read it?

It’s so striking and original, and even by today’s standards, it’s very innovative. It’s such a uniquely ambitious piece of writing.

The show simplifies the story somewhat but preserves a lot of the complexity and ambiguity of the novels. How did you and the other actors figure out how to hit the right emotional notes when the books are often unclear about whether we should root for or against these characters?

Tom was on set every day. He was a never ending well of information. He felt very protective about it. If he thought something wasn’t going in the direction which he imagined, he would say so, and thank goodness he did. It’s not exactly the most obvious text. It’s very opaque and complicated.

Your character is manipulative, unfaithful and cruel but also quite vulnerable and motivated in part by love. She struck me as one of the most complex and interesting female characters in literature. How did you try to capture her contradictory nature in your performance?

You can see that Ford is writing Sylvia as this glorious villain. He’s repulsed by her and fascinated by her. I thought that if I could get any flavor of that ambiguity, I would be serving the text. I thought, “Don’t make her too sympathetic and don’t be too villainous.”

The director, Susanna White, said you studied the books and picked out scenes from Sylvia’s childhood, like a moment when Sylvia remembers torturing a kitten, that aren’t depicted on screen but shaped how you played her. What were some things you drew on from the books?

There are lots of little vignettes of Sylvia’s childhood — those were very key to me. There were certain physical things that helped me that were from the book. She’s very contained and in control of her body. There was a passage in the book where he describes her tormenting a man at dinner, or the way she has of watching a potential new victim.

Did the other actors study the books too, and did you talk about them on set?

We were really nerdy about it. We were all walking around with our dog-eared, highlighted copies of the novels.

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